News tagged ‘price’

Digitimes reports citing its industry sources from the Asian supply chain that Apple is going to launch HDTV in 37-inch and 32-inch variants in summer 2012.

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The recent rumors claim that Apple may launch a smaller 7.85" iPad sometime in 2012 to compete against the new 7" Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon. Though Apple has never tried to compete spec for spec against their competitors. For example, the iPhone has kept the same basic form factor across 5 different generations.

The supply chain has actually been very specific about the screen size of this rumored iPad. According to Chinese manufacturers, Apple is buying up 7.85" screens for this upcoming mini iPad. So, we asked our friends at CiccareseDesign to put together these mockups of what a 7.85" iPad would look like in comparison to the existing 9.7" iPad.

The 7.85" iPad is actually a lot smaller than the existing iPad. Icons are smaller than the 9.7" iPad, of course, but still bigger than the icons found on the iPhone. The on screen keyboard also seems quite usable at this size.

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Analyst Brian Blair with Wedge Partners said in a note to investors this week that though Apple is believed to have built prototypes for a 7-inch iPad, and rumors of such a device launching persist, he doesn't believe Apple will release a 7-inch tablet in 2012.

"Jobs was emphatic in his view that 7-inch tablets were dead on arrival," Blair wrote, "and we believe it would be unlikely to see the company test the waters in this category anytime soon."

Blair thinks it's more likely that after the launch of a third-generation iPad Apple will keep its current iPad 2 on the production to decrease its price and address demand at the mid-tier range.

"We believe iPad 2's price drop could drop to the $349 to $399 range with Apple offering a single 16GB model," he said.

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Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray said in a note to investors on Wednesday that as Apple did not redesigned several major products in 2011, the analyst suggest that significant changes could be made in 2012. Among such changes are said to be redesigned rumored iPhone 5 that is predicted to debut in the middle of 2012, as well as an expansion of the iPad lineup into both lower and higher price points.

The launch of a so-called "iPhone 5" in 2012 would set the stage for outperformance in 2013, in Munster's eyes. He offered two scenarios for Apple's products in 2013. According to the first scenario, Apple will sell 142 million iPhone units, good for an 18 percent increase in revenue. According to the more successful scenario, Apple will sell 162 million iPhone units throughout 2013, amounting to a 35 percent increase in revenue. As for a total revenue growth for Apple in calendar 2013, Munster suggests that the growth will reach 14 percent, but he noted that such estimates are rather conservative. More prospective scenario shows that Apple’s revenue will increase by 28 percent in calendar 2013.

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According to Hebrew-language newspaper Calcalist, Apple finalized its acquisition of flash memory maker Anobit, which is said to have been recently informed their employees about the finalized deal.  The final price remains unknown, but could be in between $400 million and $500 million.

The reported goal of Apple's acquisition of Anobit is to increase the amount of memory in its portable devices, like the iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air, as well as to improve the reliability of solid-state memory. Apple is now expected to build a development center in Haifa, where Intel, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Qualcomm also have facilities. The Anobit purchase is believed to be the first acquisition for Apple with Tim Cook as CEO.

Anobit is a 200-employee Israeli fabless semiconductor company that specializes in flash storage. Anobit has about 100 pending and granted patents, and was first founded in 2006. Apple is said to be particularly interested in the company's proprietary memory signal processing technology and planning to build a semiconductor development center in Israel.

Apple is progressively expanding the capabilities of its Siri voice assistant feature of the iPhone 4S. Wolfram Alpha reports in its blog that it is now enabling its clients to browse Best Buy's electronics and appliances data provides iPhone 4S Siri users a new way to shop and compare products using their voice. The retailer's database includes 35,000 consumer products.

"We’ve taken the strengths we’ve developed in math, science, and socioeconomic data and created something equally unique and useful for online shoppers," the search provider stated.

Using either the web or one's own voice using Siri, users can search for a general product category or a specific product model and obtain a comprehensive report detailing product features, prices and availability, users ratings, price comparisons with similar models.

Users can even shop for products based on their specific needs, such as asking for "the lightest digital camera under $100 with a pixel resolution greater than 12MP,” or compare multiple models. The Best Buy data is currently only available to users in the United States.

Research in Motion is struggling now for its share of the mobile market. But the price of  its stocks is getting lower and lower, so the company is worth less than the estimated value of just Apple's App Store. An analysis from Trefis' Brian S. Hall notes that at a price of $13.44, RIMM stock finished last week at a total value of just $7.04 billion, less than the $7.08 billion that Apple's App Store is estimated to be worth. As for the whole Apple company, AAPL stock has a market cap of $354 billion, or more than 50 times greater than RIMM.

"The App Store is probably worth more than BlackBerry," Hall wrote. "All of BlackBerry. Just the App Store. Nothing else. Not the iPhone or iPod. Not Mac. Just the App Store."

App Store is now one of the key components of Apple’s success. Just a year of Apple's iTunes Store and App Store’s operation costs Apple $1.3 billion, but last year only developers received $2.5 billion in payments in the App Store. According to a last week report, iOS applications bring in 300 percent more revenue than their Android counterparts.

RIM's stock has been showing decline in the price since the company announced last week that BlackBerry shipments reduced year over year while the company managed to ship just 150,000 PlayBook tablets last quarter. Moreover the company delayed the release of its next-generation smartphone operating system, BlackBerry 10, until the second half of 2012.

Right now popular games Asphalt 6: Adrenaline and Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD developed by Gameloft are available for free for a limited time. Regular price is $4.99 for iPhone version and $6.99 for iPad version. So go ahead and download.

Asphalt 6 is a arcade racing game with superb enviorments and fast-paced racing, there's over 55 events, across 11 leagues. Drive cars such as Astion Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini and even Ducati's. The single player campaign is quite long for being on the iOS, but that's not all, there's also multiplayer support via the Game Center.

Download Asphalt 6: Adrenaline
Download Asphalt 6: Adrenaline HD

Yesterday Russia had finally got official iPhone 4S.

iPhone 4S in Russia is sold unlocked. The prices vary from $1100-$1220 for 16G model up to $1350-$1450 for top 64G model. Interesting fact is that black models are $100 cheaper than white ones.

This is quite expensive compared to the US, where unlocked models without contract cost from $649 (16G) to $849 (64G) plus taxes.

Analyst Mark Moskowitz with J.P. Morgan expects that MacBook Air sales will reach an average of 1.6 million units per quarter over the next 12 months. In the third quarter of calendar 2011, Apple sold 923,000 units of the MacBook Air, representing 838.6 percent year-over-year growth. Comparing with the previous quarter MacBook Air sales grew by 43.8 percent, outpacing total Mac unit growth of 17.1 percent.

China is now becoming a strong driver for growth of MacBook Air sales. Last quarter, MacBook Air units grew 339 percent year over year in China, versus 76.5 percent for the rest of the Mac lineup. Moreover, notebooks based on Intel's Ultrabook specification are highly unlikely to be a significant threat to the MacBook Air.

"In general, we think that Ultrabooks are highly-discretionary devices, and pricing on competitive offerings must fall below $800 before posing a viable threat to Apple's MacBook Air," he wrote in a note to investors. "In our view, Apple's first mover advantage and optimized feature set and form factor command a higher price that early adopters, productivity users, and Apple enthusiasts are willing to absorb."

Today market research company Strategy Analytics reported on its research which covers «connected TV players», such as Ruku and Apple TV. The report shows that Apple is expected to reach sales of 4 million Apple TV boxes for 2011, leading the growing market with a 32 percent share.

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This month Apple is continuing its global rollout of its new iPhone model and while the company has not issued any statements about its future launch schedule, retailers and carrier partners in some countries have announced availability of the device for December 16th. This round of rollout will include two of the most populous countries: Russian and Brazil.

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Though Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster does not have specific knowledge of Apple's ultimate plans for its television set, he has expressed his ideas about what Apple will do with its rumored product that may be launched in the second half of next year. Among Munster's predictions:

- Full-fledged television set. Apple’s television set will be an all-in-one solution, but most users won’t be able to use cable or satellite channels, because Apple does not offer a full suite of television content offerings. Instead, the Apple’s TV will serve as a user interface that still uses the standard signal from a cable box.

- Range of sizes and twice current pricing. Apple’s television set will be introduced in a range of sizes. Munster suggest that Apple’ TV will have price that will be approximately twice higher than the prevailing market price of similarly-sized televisions.

- Simplicity and Apple's ecosystem. Apple television will integrate with iOS devices and Apple's content ecosystem for video, games, and apps. The TV will have a traditional remote control, but also iPad and iPhone apps for controlling the set's features, as well as Siri voice control to simplify interaction with television sets.

Apple retail stores are taking part in World AIDS Day today, on December 1. The company is drawing attention to its (RED) products, which raise money to fight AIDS in Africa. ifoAppleStore reports that a "select group of Specialists will be wearing and promoting the (RED) iPod nano" to mark the day set for international AIDS awareness.

Apple sells 8GB and 16GB (RED) iPod nano models for the same price as other models, but a part of money that Apple will receive this day, will be donated to the Global Fund in order to fight AIDS in Africa. The company also offers a (RED) leather iPad Smart Cover, Special Edition (RED) Beats by Dr. Dre Solo HD Headphones, as well as a (RED) iTunes gift card. Managers also have to use the (RED) Smart Covers for iPads during this day.

The idea of this (RED) project belongs to U2 lead singer Bono and Bobby Shriver. Apple has been the largest contributor to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS.

"This is serious and significant," Bono wrote. "And Apple's involvement has encouraged other companies to step up."

Chair Entertainment launched a sequel of its Infinity Blade in Apple Stores. The original version became the first iOS game running on the Unreal Engine and also the best-selling iOS game with 1,6 millions downloads just in four days after its release.

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